May 20th
– 26th May 2013
Monday. J. got
home from work and went to sleep. The same routine for me. J. got up
at 1.13 pm and it took her over an hour to get moving. It was her
switch day, to sleep for a bit, stay awake and go to sleep during the
night. I found a word describing her state in the afternoon “Monster
Inc.”. She did some reading, had some food and then I had to force
her to get out of the apartment. At the end, we agreed on smaller
walk to the downtown of Syracuse. It was sunny and really warm.
Underneath the highways, nicer and uglier streets. On Erie Boulevard
we found Erie Canal Museum. As we learned, it used to be weighing
building (to check to weight of the ship and determine the toll),
nicely restored free museum. We went in and went through the museum
and were more than surprised. There was even a ship in what probably
used to be a canal and we could walk through it. Some nice stuff and
pictures from the era when Syracuse was thriving (long gone). We
continued via Hannover Square to Clinton Square. Clinton Square was
on Erie Canal and there was a port. Who could imagine that today?
There is a water feature in the middle of the square (I guess it is
supposed to remind of a canal). Walk back. Nothing special, some big
old homes and some abandoned ones really close by. Syracuse is
strange. Light dinner, reading and relaxing and movie “Couple's
Retreat” in the evening (movie highly recommended).
Tuesday. Slow
morning. J. had big issues to get up and start her day (feeling sick,
tired and cranky). Hopefully it will get better (the way she copes
with the night shift). It was somewhat cloudy and sunny at the same
time and the forecast was calling for thunder storms later in the
day. We drove about 8 miles to Clark Reservation State Park. It is
still interesting how close the “urban” area is to pretty much
countryside. There was some work done in the park (lawn mowing and
construction). Few cars in the parking lot. Hot and humid. Cranky J.
It was about 2.5 miles walk. There is just about six miles of trails.
A lot of rocks, nice tame forest, boring first, later more rocks and
more interesting. Small lake in the valley, we did not go there this
time. Really steep edge. After the walk we drove via several small
villages and some towns east and northeast. Very similar landscape,
hilly and “domesticated”. The roads are in really good shape
(especially considering winters here). The state speed limit is 55.
It looks like the speed limit is posted (in the village for example)
and then there is a sign with (end speed limit). Some abandoned
houses. A lot of farm lands and farms. Jamesville County Park, on the
lake, lawn mowing, road work. I would say that it looks quite a bit
like Europe, there are some forest and green spaces, but most of the
land is in some type of use, it looks very “domesticated” and
manicured. And there is a lot of cemeteries. A lot of them. Lake
Oneida. Verona State Park. Empty. A lot of work being done, again. We
walked a bit around, very few people, huge parking lot. It looks like
New York State has pretty nice recreational facilities and actually
takes care of them (no budget cuts?). Still hot and humid. Drive
home, more less the same landscape, glimpses of lake for a while, an
accident on the road. We quickly stop by the store to get few food
items. Reading, television watching, school work and not much. It
rained and there was a lot of thunder going around. Strange weather.
Wednesday. We do
not have much luck (so far) with the weather. Cloudy, humid and drops
of rain. J. slept until eleven (I tried to wake her up at 8.30 am but
she acted as Monster Inc., so I left her alone). It was kind of late
for a longer trip to Lake Ontario, so we stayed local. We drove
through the city (we saw some new parts), a lot of construction going
on. We wanted to visit Zoo. There was a construction in progress by
the entrance. Many school children. Some rain, so we continued
driving. We drove through some parks that we (apparently) already
visited. The weather got better so we drove back to Zoo and went in.
Relatively small, nice landscape, again lost in green jungle. Many
animals were just sleeping. Hot and humid. Sunny. In was not the
greatest, but it was interesting. It seems be in line with the rest
of Syracuse area, kind of smaller and tame. Too hot. We drove home.
J. did some cooking, we relaxed for the rest of the day. J. had to
stay up whole night as she was switching back to the night shift.
Thursday. Pretty
much nothing. J. slept during the day. It was hot and humid again.
Monkey business at home, I went quickly to the store and took a short
walk in the park. Some rain in the evening. J. went to the work (I
drove her).
Friday. A huge
drop in temperature over night. It got below 45 degrees and it was
raining. When I got up, there was fog all over the place and it was
cold. Strange, just yesterday we were so hot. Pick J. up at work and
more less the same morning routine. It stayed cold and rainy whole
day. Nothing special. In the evening, I drove J. to work. Rainy
Syracuse.
Saturday. Empty
town. Quiet and sad looking, rainy and cold, empty Syracuse. J. went
to sleep and was switching in the early afternoon. It was somewhat
better than the last time. She was just partly “Monster Inc.”
(never saw the movie or have no idea what is it about). Some food,
slow around the house. Later for drove few miles west to go to the
used bookstore (I saw some adds). Unfortunately it was catering to
people reading romance and popular novels. Not interesting. More less
next to it (in the shopping strip), there was a store called
“European Specialties”. Small store with some stuff (Polish and
Russian), some meats and cheeses. Actually pretty nice selection.
Syracuse Arboretum (nice dog park next to the cemetery). Cloudy.
Drive back and evening with the movie.
Sunday. Normal
morning, it was cold outside. Sunny. J. slept terrible. We left the
house around 9.30 heading northwest. Somewhat similar landscape,
rolling hills, a lot of farmland and bunch of small villages and
towns. We stopped once in a small town where J. saw a junk shop, so
she went in. Besides that we just drove into Fair Haven State Park. I
think for the first time I saw Lake Ontario. It was really cold and
windy on the shore. The sign “no camping vacancy” was strange, it
was pretty cold during the day, but on the other had it was Memorial
Day weekend. Parked. Walked on the Federal Pier. The surroundings of
the Lake were really pretty. Pond in the middle. Couple smaller
building. Nice bay with the vacation homes on one side. Kind of
peaceful. The lake was pretty wild. We drove a bit into the park and
passed four larger parties picnicking along the way. We walked on the
closed service road and were thinking about walking the Lakeshore
Trail. Small beach. Swamp behind us. Walking. Going uphill and
following the lake from the above. The “mini” trail was just on
the edge of falling dirt. The views and nature were really pretty,
the lake on one side and nice woods on the other. We were not sure
about the trail though. Later, we saw some leftover land masses
standing up and created strange looking sharp islands. In a while
(probably a bit less then a mile) we ended up on the beach and walked
back on Woodlands trail. Really nice nature. And back to the car.
Another ten miles or so to the town of Oswego. We stopped on some
roadside farm market / greenhouse, it was huge place full of people.
We got some fruit and vegetables. Oswego. Nothing really special, we
drove by downtown (not much there) and ended up by Fort Ontario Park.
At the end of the park, we had “photo opportunities” of the
Oswego Lighthouse. It was really nice (still working) structure built
on the breaker wall. Not open to the public. Fort Ontario, there was
an admission and surprisingly quite a few people. Big (more less)
round wall with concrete blocks and grass on the top. Big round space
in the middle with three houses and some smaller buildings, which we
could tour. Some were really nicely restored with stuff and
information inside. From the top of the wall, there were several
access points into inner shooting catacombs. There was one remaining
canon on the top wall as well, funny thing, the birds had a nest
inside it. Almost leaving, we got stopped by the guy in the uniform
(there were some kids in uniforms acting as guides) and talk about
his gun for a moment. He offered to shoot it (I did not care about
it), but J. said yes (according to her he was so excited to shoot).
We left. We were getting tired and so far it took quite a while to
get here (enjoyable time). We drove east, we passed the village of
Mexico. We got on freeway 81. Stopped by the store. Dinner. Movies.
Sleep.
